DESCRIPTION

- This is an implementation of the classic Chinese abacus (Saun-pan)
+ This is an implementation of the classic Chinese Abacus (Saun-pan)
which has its origins in the 12th century.
The device has two decks. Each deck, separated by a partition, nor-
@@ -59,15 +59,15 @@
different parts of the abacus for scratch work, here it is nice to have
a long abacus.
- The pre-WWII Japanese abacus (Soroban) (or Korean Supan) is similar to
- the Chinese abacus but has only one bead per rail on the top deck. The
- later Japanese abacus was further simplified to have only 4 beads per
+ The pre-WWII Japanese Abacus (Soroban) (or Korean Supan) is similar to
+ the Chinese Abacus but has only one bead per rail on the top deck. The
+ later Japanese Abacus was further simplified to have only 4 beads per
rail on the bottom deck.
- The Roman hand-abacus predates the Chinese abacus and is very similar
- to the later Japanese abacus, but seems to have fallen out of use with
+ The Roman Hand-Abacus predates the Chinese Abacus and is very similar
+ to the later Japanese Abacus, but seems to have fallen out of use with
the Fall of the Roman Empire (at least 3 are in existence). The Roman
- abaci are brass plates where the beads move in slots. In addition to
+ Abaci are brass plates where the beads move in slots. In addition to
the normal 7 columns of beads, they generally have 2 special columns on
the right side. In two examples: the first special column was for
12ths (12 uncia (ounces) = 1 as) and had one extra bead in the bottom
@@ -80,43 +80,48 @@
column was broken into 3 separate slots. If available, decimal input
is ignored.
- The Russian abacus was invented in the 17th century, here the beads are
+ The Russian Abacus was invented in the 17th century, here the beads are
moved from right to left. It has colored beads in the middle for ease
of use. Quarters represent 1/4 Rubles and are only present histori-
- cally on the Russian abacus (Schoty). Some of the older Schoty have a
+ cally on the Russian Abacus (Schoty). Some of the older Schoty have a
extra place for the 1/4 Kopek (quarter percent) as well as the 1/4
Ruble (quarter).
- The Danish abacus was used in the early 20th century in elementary
+ The Danish Abacus was used in the early 20th century in elementary
schools as a teaching aid.
- The Mesoamerican Nepohualtzintzin is a Japanese abacus base 20. The
- Mesoamericans had base 20 with the exception of the 3rd decimal place
+ The Medieval Counter is a primitive form of the abacus and was used in
+ Europe as late as the 1600s. It was useful considering they were using
+ it with Roman Numerals. This is similar to the Salamis Greek Tablet
+ from 4th or 5th Century BCE.
+
+ The Mesoamerican Nepohualtzintzin is a Japanese Abacus base 20. The
+ Mesoamericans had base 20 with the exception of the 3rd decimal place
where instead of 20*20=400 the third place marked 360 and the 4th place
- was 20*360, etc.. They independently created their own zero (only
- Babylon (base 60) and India (base 10) have done this) but the anomaly
+ was 20*360, etc.. They independently created their own zero (only
+ Babylon (base 60) and India (base 10) have done this) but the anomaly
took away its true power.
- An easy way of figuring out time in seconds given hours, minutes, and
- seconds, can be done on the abacus with special anomaly "watch" set-
+ An easy way of figuring out time in seconds given hours, minutes, and
+ seconds, can be done on the abacus with special anomaly "watch" set-
tings.
- The Chinese Solid-and-Broken-Bar System is a base 12 numbering system
- and not really an abacus. When the abacus is setup in this way though
+ The Chinese Solid-and-Broken-Bar System is a base 12 numbering system
+ and not really an abacus. When the abacus is setup in this way though
(topFactor 3, topNumber 3, bottomNumber 2, base 12, displayBase 12), it
is easy to relate the two.
- The signed bead is an invention of the author, and is not present on
+ The signed bead is an invention of the author, and is not present on
any historical abacus (to his knowledge) and is used to represent nega-
tives. "New & Improved" abacus models have two auxiliary decks stacked
- above the principal deck that enable multiplication, division,
+ above the principal deck that enable multiplication, division,
square-root, and cube-root computations to be performed with equal ease
- as addition and subtraction.
+ as addition and subtraction (well, so I have read).

FEATURES

- Click "mouse-left" button on a bead you want to move. The beads will
+ Click "mouse-left" button on a bead you want to move. The beads will
shift themselves to vacate the area of the column that was clicked.
Click "mouse-right" button, or press "C" or "c" keys, to clear the aba-
@@ -126,59 +131,59 @@
Press "$" key to toggle the teach mode.
- In teach mode, "+" key toggles starting side to sum, ""*" key toggles
+ In teach mode, "+" key toggles starting side to sum, ""*" key toggles
for starting side for multiplicand.
Press "~" or "`" keys to complement the beads on the rails.
- Press "I" or "i" keys to increment the number of rails. Press "D" or
+ Press "I" or "i" keys to increment the number of rails. Press "D" or
"d" keys to decrement the number of rails.
- Press "F" or "f" keys to switch between Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
- Roman, Russian, and Danish formats. There is an extra "Generic" for-
- mat, this allows one to break some rules binding the other formats (for
- example, if one wanted more beads on top deck than on bottom deck you
- would use this, in addition to resource option changes).
+ Press "F" or "f" keys to switch between Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
+ Roman, Russian, Danish, and Medieval formats. There is an extra
+ "Generic" format, this allows one to break some rules binding the other
+ formats (for example, if one wanted more beads on top deck than on bot-
+ tom deck you would use this, in addition to resource option changes).
- Press "V" or "v" keys to toggle Roman Nvmerals. (Pardon typo/humor,
+ Press "V" or "v" keys to toggle Roman Nvmerals. (Pardon typo/humor,
but ran out of letters).
Press "S" or "s" keys to toggle the sign bead.
- Press "U" or "u" keys to toggle the availability of quarter beads.
- (Mutually exclusive to twelfth beads). Intended for the Russian Aba-
+ Press "U" or "u" keys to toggle the availability of quarter beads.
+ (Mutually exclusive to twelfth beads). Intended for the Russian Aba-
cus.
- Press "T" or "t" keys to toggle the availability of twelfth beads.
+ Press "T" or "t" keys to toggle the availability of twelfth beads.
(Mutually exclusive to quarter beads). Intended for the Roman Abacus.
- Press "P" or "p" keys to toggle the availability of quarter percent
- beads. (Dependent on quarter beads (or twelfth beads). Intended for
+ Press "P" or "p" keys to toggle the availability of quarter percent
+ beads. (Dependent on quarter beads (or twelfth beads). Intended for
the older Russian Abacus.
- Press "B" or "b" keys to toggle the availability of subdecks. (Depen-
- dent on twelfth beads (or quarter beads) and Roman format). Intended
- for the Roman Abacus, where the lowest value of two at bottom of the
- rightmost column of beads are a twelfth of the column second from
+ Press "B" or "b" keys to toggle the availability of subdecks. (Depen-
+ dent on twelfth beads (or quarter beads) and Roman format). Intended
+ for the Roman Abacus, where the lowest value of two at bottom of the
+ rightmost column of beads are a twelfth of the column second from
right.
- Press "E" or "e" keys to toggle the availability of subdecks. (Depen-
- dent on twelfth beads (or quarter beads) and Roman format). Intended
- for the Roman Abacus, where the lowest value of three at bottom of the
- rightmost column of beads are an eighth of the column second from
+ Press "E" or "e" keys to toggle the availability of subdecks. (Depen-
+ dent on twelfth beads (or quarter beads) and Roman format). Intended
+ for the Roman Abacus, where the lowest value of three at bottom of the
+ rightmost column of beads are an eighth of the column second from
right.
Press "M" or "m" keys to switch between it, uk, and fr museum formats.
- Press "L" or "l" keys to toggle the availability of anomaly bars.
+ Press "L" or "l" keys to toggle the availability of anomaly bars.
Intended to be used with Japanese Abacus and base 20 for the Mesoameri-
can Abacus. (Mutually exclusive to watch bars).
- Press "W" or "w" keys to toggle the availability of watch bars.
- Intended to represent seconds where hours and minutes can be set.
+ Press "W" or "w" keys to toggle the availability of watch bars.
+ Intended to represent seconds where hours and minutes can be set.
(Mutually exclusive to anomaly bars).
- Press ">" or "." keys to speed up the movement of beads. Press "<" or
+ Press ">" or "." keys to speed up the movement of beads. Press "<" or
"," keys to slow down the movement of beads.
Press "@" key to toggle the sound.
@@ -187,39 +192,39 @@
Press "Q", "q", or "CTRL-C" keys to kill program.
- The abacus may be resized. Beads will reshape depending on the room
- they have. DemoMode: In this mode, the abacus is controlled by the
- program. When started with the demo option, a second window is pre-
+ The abacus may be resized. Beads will reshape depending on the room
+ they have. DemoMode: In this mode, the abacus is controlled by the
+ program. When started with the demo option, a second window is pre-
sented that should be placed directly below the abacus-window. Descrip-
tive text, and user prompts are displayed in this window. Pressing 'q'
- during the demo will quit it. Clicking the left mouse-button with the
- pointer in the window will restart the demo (beginning of current les-
+ during the demo will quit it. Clicking the left mouse-button with the
+ pointer in the window will restart the demo (beginning of current les-
son).

OPTIONS

-geometry{+|-}X{+|-}Y
- This option sets the initial position of the abacus window
+ This option sets the initial position of the abacus window
(resource name "geometry").
-displayhost:dpy
This option specifies the X server to contact.
-[no]mono
- This option allows you to display the abacus window on a color
+ This option allows you to display the abacus window on a color
screen as if it were monochrome (resource name "mono").
-[no]{reverse|rv}
- This option allows you to see the abacus window in reverse
+ This option allows you to see the abacus window in reverse
video (resource name "reverseVideo").
-{foreground|fg}color
- This option specifies the foreground of the abacus window
+ This option specifies the foreground of the abacus window
(resource name "foreground").
-{background|bg}color
- This option specifies the background of the abacus window
+ This option specifies the background of the abacus window
(resource name "background").
-{border|bd}color
@@ -227,43 +232,47 @@
(resource name "borderColor").
-framecolor
- This option specifies the foreground of the frame (resource
+ This option specifies the foreground of the frame (resource
name "frameColor").
-primaryBeadColorcolor
- This option specifies the foreground of the beads (resource
+ This option specifies the foreground of the beads (resource
name "primaryBeadColor").
-leftAuxBeadColorcolor
- This option specifies the foreground of the beads for the left
- auxiliary abacus in Lee's Abacus (resource name "leftAuxBead-
+ This option specifies the foreground of the beads for the left
+ auxiliary abacus in Lee's Abacus (resource name "leftAuxBead-Color").
-rightAuxBeadColorcolor
This option specifies the foreground of the beads for the right
- auxiliary abacus in Lee's Abacus (resource name "rightBead-
+ auxiliary abacus in Lee's Abacus (resource name "rightBead-Color").
-secondaryBeadColorcolor
- This option specifies the secondary color of the beads
+ This option specifies the secondary color of the beads
(resource name "secondaryBeadColor").
-highlightBeadColorcolor
- This option specifies the highlight color of the beads
+ This option specifies the highlight color of the beads
(resource name "highlightBeadColor").
-primaryRailColorcolor
- This option specifies the foreground of the rails (resource
+ This option specifies the foreground of the rails (resource
name "primaryRailColor").
-secondaryRailColorcolor
- This option specifies the secondary color of the rails
+ This option specifies the secondary color of the rails
(resource name "secondaryRailColor").
-highlightRailColorcolor
- This option specifies the highlight color of the rails
+ This option specifies the highlight color of the rails
(resource name "highlightRailColor").
+ -lineRailColorcolor
+ This option specifies the color of the lines when using check-
+ ers (resource name "lineRailColor").
+
-bumpSoundfilename
This option specifies the file for the bump sound for the move-
ment of the beads (resource name "bumpSound").
@@ -569,6 +578,11 @@
"format") to "Danish" for the Danish Elementary School Abacus
teaching aid.
+ -medieval
+ This option specifies the format of the abacus (resource name
+ "format") to "Medieval" for the Medieval Counter, with counters
+ instead of beads.
+
-generic
This option specifies the format on the abacus (resource name
"format") to "Generic". This option specifies a format that is
@@ -635,7 +649,7 @@
-V8.0.0 13 Mar 2014 XABACUS(6)
+V8.0.1 18 Nov 2014 XABACUS(6)